Little Owl finds her talent.

WINNER UNDER 12s CATEGORY

HELENA BOYD, aged 9

 

Little Owl Finds Her Talent

 

Once there was a very sad little owl who was always bossed about by the other birds and laughed at because she was so grey and plain.  Rainbow Lorikeet was beautiful, Robby the Robin was fast, Lucy the Lost Chicken was good at jumping, and many other birds were good at other things, but Little Owl was grey and unnoticed.

 

One beautiful day, there was a bush celebration and all the bush animals were coming to watch and take parts in races. 

 

When Little Owl arrived, Joey came hopping over and said “Little Owl, I put you down for the Racing At Night competition”. 

“But I won’t win!” said Little Owl.

“You just wait and see!” sang Joey and hopped off.

 

As the day went on, there many winners for the different competitions: Most Gum Leaves Eaten (Koala), Fastest to the Bottom of the Lake (Platypus), Highest Flier (Goshawk), Most Beautiful (Rainbow Lorikeet), and others. 

 

After lunch, there were more competitions.  When Swan won The Best To Float, Echidna called out “OK, Quoll, Wombat, Little Owl, Possum, Sugar Glider, please come up for the Race in the Dark”.

Everyone got into positions at the line while laughing at Little Owl.

“OK” yelled Echidna “Get ready… get set… GO!!!”

 

Little Owl flapped as fast as she thought she could go.  But when she heard Joey calling “GO LITTLE OWL” she flapped even faster.  Then… she was there! At the finish line!

SHE HAD WON!!!

 

Next across the line came Sugar Glider, followed by Possum, then Quoll and last, slowly, Wombat.

 

There were hoots, yells, screeches, clapping and stamping of feet, with everyone saying “What?!”, “WELL DONE!!!”, “How surprising!”, “SHE DID IT!”, “AMAZING!” …

and Wombat could be heard saying “Well, at least I won the competition for The Slowest”.

 

Then Echidna came and gave Little Owl, Sugar Glider and Possum a medal.  The medals were made of gum leaves, with some yellow wattle for 1st, a red grevillea for 2nd, and a banksia for 3rd. 

 

Everybody chatted and danced for the rest of the night.  Insects sang, Koala played music on his gum leaves, and Joey kept the beat on Turtle’s shell! 

 

By sunrise everyone had gone home and Little Owl went to her bed, and was never laughed at again.